Caber Campers
They are the unlikeliest of athletes, with waistbands as big as their appetites and a no-frills approach to training, but Scotland’s Highland heavies are keeping the country’s iconic sports alive and throwing
BY SHARON MCKI
Early one Sunday morning, in a small town in the Scottish Highlands, I am Highland dancing – with 20 kilted Highland games heavyweight athletes – along a rope ladder laid flat on the ground.
This was Jean’s idea. Jean is the local Highland-dance instructor; a retired PE teacher who also helps out at training sessions each month – and her methods aren’t going down too well with my work-out buddies.
“This is great plyometric training and helps build muscle in the lower legs,” she explains. “This is what I make my dancers do; though they do it with a little more grace.”
She’s right. There’s nothing graceful about any of us, myself included, and hopping in and out of the squares of the ladder under Jean’s watchful eye is surprisingly tough.
The heavies grumble like a bunch of teenagers in detention while jumping flat-footedly from one square to the next, their kilts swinging behind them. They’ve already done two laps of the park as warm-up and they’re getting decidedly agitated with all this dancing nonsense.
The men themselves are huge, hulking specimens unlike anything you would ever find in the city. These are men raised on hearty home cooking and fresh air, and in competition it’s not a case of sorting the men from the boys, but the huge men from the slightly less huge men.
Today’s training session with the Perthshire Highland Games Association is in preparation for the 2009 World Highland Games Heavy Events Championship in Edinburgh. The competition is part of the Edinburgh Highland Games, Scotland’s biggest event of this kind, and will take place in the city’s Holyrood Park on 25-26 July. The Heavy Events Championship will see some of the world’s finest heavyweight athletes step up to a world-class challenge in these traditional Scottish skills.
Craig Sinclair is one such competitor who will be defending Scotland’s reputation at the games. And, while he may not look like the average athlete – being 1.93m and weighing in at more than 127kg – he has won every major under-25s heavy event championship on the circuit and has a record-breaking throwing arm.
Today, I will be following Craig’s training regime to see just what it takes to putt a shot, toss a caber and throw a hammer for Scotland.
Warm-up over, it’s time to start throwing and immediately the mood in the group is lifted. This, after all, is what these guys do best. First up is the hammer: a 7.25-10kg weight on the end of a shaft of bamboo.
Luckily, my trainers for the day have come well-prepared and I’m given a 5.5kg child’s hammer for my attempt. Weighing the equivalent of six bags of sugar, the child’s hammer is still a pretty weighty piece of equipment and, as I step up to the mark, I can’t help but wonder where on earth you find hammer-throwing children and, more importantly, how strong are they?
As I helicopter the hammer above my head I gain pretty good momentum. Perhaps a little too much: I suddenly feel afraid that I might not be able to let go. When I finally manage to prise my fingers from the wooden shaft, stumbling backwards, it’s more a case of the hammer throwing me, than me ng the hammer. hind me,
We break for lunch just as I’m starting to feel my muscles protest at any further unnecessary lifting, and I’m eager to see just what these freakishly strong men are eating. Protein shakes surely, and sports drinks for energy. Jean, however, has a very different diet in mind for the boys, and they’re served up an elite athletes’ lunch of… cheese sandwiches and tea.
“Good food and lots of it,” confesses Craig, with a grin. “That’s the only secret to my diet.” It certainly seems to work.
Lunch over, it’s on to the shot putt and, once again, I’m presented with a 5.5kg child-sized version. Even so, I struggle to get my hand around the circumference of the weight, which makes it near impossible to putt it.
Luckily, Craig’s hands are relative, size-wise, to the rest of him, and his 7.25kg shot sits snugly against his palm before sailing some 15m through the air. I guess it’s true what they say about men: big hands, big… shot-putting skills.
Finally we’re onto the caber, the most iconic of the Highland games sports, but first the lads have to retrieve it from a nearby river where it’s been soaking up water, and weight, for the past couple of hours. This is how the heavyweights “up” their game.
“The longer it stays in the burn [Scottish for river],” says Craig, “the harder it is to toss it accurately.”
Caber tossing isn’t measured in distance or height like other heavy sports, but by the accuracy with which you completely flip the caber over. The aim is to get the end furthest from the thrower (upon release) to end up closest to the thrower upon landing, and to have the whole caber land straight in front of them in a 12-o’clock position.
The caber in front of me is 5.5m long and weighs in at 90kg. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a child-sized one, so I settle for the assistance of three, yes three, heavyweight helpers to prop it up for me.
“Don’t worry,” says Craig. “You don’t have to throw it.”
By the end of my day’s training I’m exhausted and aching in places I’ve never ached before. The lads take it all in their stride, though.
In fact, they’ve barely broken a sweat. But, then, they do train around three times a week, so they’re used to it.
It’s been a surreal experience and a real eye-opener to the world of the heavyweight athlete. A world where the diet consists of home-cooked, hearty food, and a sports drink is a mug of hot, sweet tea; where there are no slow-motion replays or technical faults, just good honest throws until the best man wins. And as for breathable sports fabrics, well, there’s nothing more air-conditioned than a kilt!
For tickets and more information about the Heavyweight Games, visit www.homecomingscotland2009.com
WEIGHING IT UP
It all looks pretty impressive, but exactly what are the heavy athletes throwing? Here are some facts and figures to help you get a feel for some of the weights and distances in the Highland Games Heavy Events Championships:
A 7.25kg shot putt weighs the equivalent of an adult West Highland terrier. Competitive distance for a 7.25kg shot putt: 14.5m.
A 10kg hammer weighs the equivalent of a healthy one-year-old child. Competitive distance for a 10kg hammer: 33.5m. A 12.5kg “weight for distance” (weight on the end of a chain, which is thrown) is the equivalent of a mountain bike. Competitive distance for a 12.5kg weight: 24m.
A 25.5kg “weight for height” (weight on the end of a chain, which is thrown upwards over a bar from a standing position) is the equivalent of a baby hippopotamus. Competitive height for a 25.5kg weight: 4.5m.
A 90kg caber weighs the equivalent of a hundred bags of sugar and is approximately three men long.
WEIGHING IN
Craig Sinclair will compete at the 2009 World Highland Games Heavy Events Championship in Edinburgh on 25-26 July. The Championship forms part of the Gathering, the biggest ever celebration of clan culture, which is a centrepiece in Homecoming Scotland 2009.
For further information, visit www.clangathering.org
WEIGH TO GO
Mavis Hall Park, near Edinburgh, offers Highland games activities – such as tossing the caber, throwing the hammer, traditional Highland dancing – for groups of eight or more.
For further information visit www.mavishallpark.co.uk
